


Dick's in peril, Jason saves him, and then the games begin

by narfiffiftic (maladictive)



Category: Batman (Comics), DCU (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Blood, Gen, also dick grayson was an impossibly beautiful robin, and jason todd is the cutest thing ever, dick and jason are the same age-ish, there are children in danger, think year one eyebrows
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-22
Updated: 2013-12-22
Packaged: 2018-01-05 14:00:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1094740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maladictive/pseuds/narfiffiftic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jason Todd wanders across an injured and bleeding Robin, and he breaks the biggest rule of the streets.<br/>He gets involved.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dick's in peril, Jason saves him, and then the games begin

**Author's Note:**

> This has been on my tumblr for a long time, and I only just remembered to post it here too, yikes.

 

The boy was strange to look at and impossible to look away from; even bleeding out on the concrete, pale and sickly green, Jason couldn’t even feel scared. He just wanted to get closer.

It might have been the way his mouth was firmly set in a grimace, like he wasn’t ever going to let himself cry out, like he’d never give anyone the satisfaction, or it might have been that this was  _Robin._

It was the perfect image of a fallen warrior, like something from a play, or a book. Jason wasn’t intimately familiar with the term  _idealization_ yet _,_ but if he were, he’d be mortified.

He didn’t see this type of thing often in the squalor of crime alley, a place where people gave up and let the streets take them wherever. He didn’t often see so much  _fight_.

Jason looked at Robin, bleeding his guts out on the piss dirty ground, by the old dumpsters, and he saw something almost glorious.

He couldn’t tear his eyes away, not from the blood, and not from the harsh gaze that finally met his. So he broke the one standing law of the streets, the one rule that every still-breathing kid followed, and the rule every missing child had supposedly broken.

He got involved.

* * *

“Do you need… help?” It sounded flat, even in a situation where he might be excused from sounding flat. He sounded… mundane.

The boy held Jason’s gaze, unmoving, impassive. 

Jason was overcome with the need to make sure this person was fine, this animal-like boy, with his glaring eyes, and his harsh scowl.

He looked like he’d never smiled in his life. Nothing like the Robin from patrols, the Robin that everyone lined up to see on bad nights, just to hear him laugh a bit, and watch him trail after the shadow of the bat.

But then Robin lifted his head, and gave Jason a brilliant, horrific smile.

There was blood on his teeth, and it wasn’t beautiful, but it was breathtaking.

“You look like shit.”

Damn it.

“I mean—“

“Nah, I know. I’ve looked better."

“Yeah?”

That was creepy; Jason was being creepy with  _Robin._ Who didn’t seem so scary, or mysterious anymore. 

Jason swallowed, sticking his hands in his pockets to hide the shaking.  

“I’m actually okay. It just kind of hurts a bit,” Robin says.

“I… really?”

“Yeah, yeah, it’d take more than a few stabs to the gut to get me.”

“Then why is there blood everywhere?”

“Because I  _bled_ , smartass.” Robin chuckled a bit, but it sounded wet, like there was blood in his throat too, “I’m not superman; I do bleed from cuts.”

Jason blushed, and he wanted to run away. He didn’t need this. 

“But you make a good point; theoretically, I’m probably dying.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, but that’s like, everyday stuff.”

This kid sounded way too normal, and Jason was a little disappointed. What about the hero? What about  _Robin?_

“So what do  _I_  do?”

“Well first off, if you could help me up, I have a safe spot two blocks from here; is the way clear?”

“It’s always clear at night.”

“I knew I picked a good spot, B was telling me I should have picked Fourth and Highland but—“

“Should you be telling me this?” Honestly, if Jason were poetic, he’d have called this conversation the crumbling of a golden pedestal.

“Why not? You’re just a cute kid.”

Jason had finally got Robin’s arm around his neck, and they were both standing after a struggle to get off the ground, but he really wanted to drop him now.

“You  _sure_  you’re the real Robin?”

There were soft giggles on the skin of Jason’s neck, and underneath the smell of blood, there was another scent. Sweat, Kevlar, cotton, and something else. It wasn’t something Jason had thought of, whenever he thought of Robin before.

Robin’s mouth was still pressed into Jason’s neck, and he could feel how cold his lips were, bloodless and chapped.

-

Jason helped Robin inside the strange apartment, and maneuvered him to a cot in the corner of the main room. Robin made him help take off his shirt.

Robin looked a bit small and scrawny when he was down, but he  _wasn’t_. Scrawny that is.

Jason wondered absently if his own muscles looked like that, because he couldn’t remember really thinking about them before.

He waited until Robin fished out a black radio from a set of drawers by the bedside, and began to mess with the dials before getting up to leave.

“Thank you.”

Jason paused, halfway up from beside him.

“What’s your name?”

“What’s yours?”

“That’s not fair, you’re not the one wearing a mask.”

“I’m… I’m Jason.”

“No last name, huh? Well, I guess we are strangers, I’m Robin,” Jason rolled his eyes, and tried not to turn and leave when Robin let out a small huff of air.

“Do you… do you need, like,  _stitches_  or something?”

“You don’t have to worry about that, Jason, the cavalry is on its way.”

Jason stood, and went to the door, and felt Robin’s masked eyes on his back the entire time. He hated feeling bested, especially by someone who had turned out not to be so golden after all. 

-

By the time he was outside the apartment, he couldn’t resist turning around to see the lit window, and he wondered if Robin wasn’t already dead. He had been bluffing earlier. 

There was a shadow in his path by the time he turned to go back on his way.

The scent of sweat and Kevlar filled him, and made him a little dazed, but he wasn’t caught off guard. Not really. He had smelled it on Robin, along with whatever else it was that made Robin  _Robin._

“He’s breathing, but he’s not okay, so I’d get up there quick.”

Jason stepped out of the Bat’s way, and walked on like nothing strange had just happened. Like he met Batmen in the dead of night after saving Robins from horrible deaths everyday.  _That_ was smooth.

-

Hiding from and refusing to serve a Gotham Academy kid at Moxie’s bar  _wasn’t_ smooth.

Old guys busy getting drunk? Fine. Pretty ladies doused in perfume and sparkles? Did they want cream in their coffee, or did they take it black? Fancy boys, like this one with his fancy hair, white smile and dark skin?  _No_.

The kid was obviously new money, and he slouched  _naturally_ , unlike his friends, who were obviously copying him. His blazer was thrown aside like he didn’t care enough to look at it, and he was eating his slice of apple pie like an animal.

That wasn’t it, though. That wasn’t why Jason was hiding. 

Jason had survived on the streets with his mom away this long for a  _reason,_ okay? This was Gotham, if you forgot a face, it’d come back with a knife to remind you who belonged to it.

That was Robin.

That was Robin, and he had no table manners, and there was  _no way_  Jason was asking him if he wanted a drink to go with that pie. Not with all his fancy friends surrounding him and his pretty maskless face covered in sauce.

Moxie could roll her eyes and snap at him as much as she wanted, he wasn’t moving from his hiding spot behind the counter.

Ever.

-

He had to move away from his hiding spot behind the counter or face Moxie’s wrath.

She wouldn’t fire him, she had hired him, underaged and rude as he was, and she would yell at him for hours if she decided she wanted to. So in the end he jutted his chin out, in  _defiance_ , and went to ask the now alone Robin-boy if he needed anything else.

His friends had left a bit ago, and truthfully that was half the reason Jason had agreed to finally do his job.

He nearly fainted when Robin took one look at him, and laughed in delight, seemingly on instinct.

Robin didn’t stand and shout, point, or pretend nothing happened, he laughed like he was happy to see Jason. 

But Jason decided he’d have his fun; it was only fair, what with Robin looking the way he looked.

“What’s your problem?” Jason sneered a bit, and tried to look like someone had just crossed him in all the wrong ways.

“Ah…” Robin looked taken aback, and muttered that it was nothing, that Jason just looked a bit like someone he knew.

“Uhuh, do you want anything else or are you leaving soon?”

Robin stared at him for a bit, narrowing his eyes, and Jason tried to look unaffected. 

Those eyebrows were ridiculously strong, and Jason wanted to touch them and then  _shave them off._

“I’m staying for a bit longer, it’s my night off."

Jason pretended not to understand, because  _did Robin know he knew?_

“Cool, didn’t know rich kids had jobs.”

“They don’t, I’m an anomaly.”

“Sure, do you want food, or can I go now?”

“I’d like company?”

Jason screamed and hit Robin over the head with his notepad. In his head. He imagined himself doing that. He didn’t actually, Moxie would shoot him with her handgun on the spot. 

“And more pie, please.”

Jason went to get the brat more  _pie_ , and Moxie was giving him a look, and as he entered the kitchens, she sort of leaned over and said “You’re off for tonight.”

Thanks, Mox. Thanks a lot.

-

“I have  _some_  time."

“Great, you seem interesting! I’m Dick Grayson, what’s your name?”

-

Bruce Wayne was Batman, holy _crap_ Jason wasn’t just getting  _involved,_  this was worse than merely getting  _involved._ Jason was getting hooked.

He was in on it now, he knew the worst of it, he was doomed. 

Dick raised his eyebrows at him over his forkful of pie (he was eating like a human now that Jason was here, but he had eaten like a horse with the rich boys and Jason tried not to think about this) and Jason told him his name.

Again.

They were both wearing masks now, weren’t they?

-

Jason suspected that despite appearances, he was better hidden than Robin, than Dick.

He was breaking all the rules, hanging out with both of them, talking about Robin to Dick, and about Dick to Robin.

It became the best game he had played in years. He felt a bit bad, but he decided that Dick deserved it for each time he showed up at Jason’s place with bad bruises and cuts and bandaged limbs, and lied to Jason’s face about them.

Robin deserved it for each time he forgot to meet Jason on the roof of the apartments on meeting nights.

He never really forgot. Jason always saw the shadow rooftops over, lingering and watching him wait. He knew that if Dick had his way, Robin would be with him.

One night the shadow met him as he waited, knowing no one would come, and they stared each other down before it spoke.

“You’re playing this game well, aren’t you?”

“Yeah, Bruce, reckon I am.”

Seeing Batman twitch the slightest bit was heavenly. Jason wanted to do it again, keep surprising him, taking him off-guard.

“He trusts you.”

“I haven’t done anything he hasn’t done.”

“No. No, you haven’t.”

There was a shifting noise, and Jason turned to see Robin landing behind him. He knew if he turned back to look at Batman, he’d be gone.

“Your boss sucks.”

Dick—  _Robin’s_ laughter filled the space between his guilt, and the feeling of righteous annoyance. Trust was a two way street, and if Dick didn’t make the first move, then Jason was staying put. 

-

Three months later, when Dick Grayson had begun to buy him treats and food (after asking for permission three times in a row and blushing like a goof), and after Robin began spending more time leaning against Jason and sniffing his hair than talking to him about cases, Jason finally figured out why Bruce was worried, and why Batman had come to him that night.

Jason had felt like he was being mean sometimes, but didn’t think too much of it, thinking he was probably the only one really caring, until Robin squeezed his hand one night on the roof, and asked if he was important to Jason, if he was special. It was a question Dick Grayson might have asked, it didn’t fit with Robin’s mask, or his careless grace. 

It turned out the game had had unforeseen consequences, and Jason hadn’t really considered that… anything… would happen when Dick had first spoken to him.

He used to associate Robin with danger, reckless joy, and wonder, a bit of envy, and Dick made him think of that, of course, but also… other stuff. Like caramel and popcorn (he’d tried both once or twice), streetlights that worked, clear water, and healthy alley cats that let you pet them and didn’t scratch.

One day Jason will realize how limited he was in describing Dick Grayson, but at this point in his young life, this is the best he can do. The greatest things he sees in the alleys of his childhood are the greatest things he’s ever seen.

That’s what Robin was, glorious hero or a chattering pretty boy. He was one of the greatest things Jason had ever seen.

Jason looked into Robin’s masked eyes, lit up by the little electric lantern between them, and Robin was so clearly worried and distressed. Even if this wasn’t the Robin he had imagined, it was better somehow than the idyllic fantasy, and Jason made up his mind on several things in that moment that would change his life forever.

“Dick, you’re Robin, stop lying, and I want you to teach me everything you know."

It was worth it to hear Dick shout in surprise, disbelief, to hear him laugh, and then punch Jason over and over. It was worth it to see the delight, the anger. Jason took the pesky mask off of Robin’s face, and quailed a bit at the tears in Dick’s eyes. Dick really  _cared,_ and Jason was beginning to think that he did too. 

He was beginning to see how lonely Dick was. 

“Okay, we’re starting over  _right_ _now_ , because you’re a sneak.”

Jason was still a bit lost in Dick’s warm smile, so he didn’t point out that that also applied very well to Dick. Hypocrite. 

“Hi! I’m Dick Grayson. I’ll teach you, Bruce’ll teach you, I want you with me, and I’d like permission to maybe hold your hand more, also I’m Robin.”

Jason huffed a bit, because this was so silly.

“I’m Jason Todd, and you have my permission."

Dick reached for both his hands, taking them and pulling him closer, and Jason let himself just accept that Batman and Robin had probably taken over his life. Permanently.

He didn’t bother pretending to mind, because Jason was done with those sorts of games for now. 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> [It's here on tumblr!](http://maladictive.tumblr.com/post/66059560438/dicks-in-peril-jason-saves-him-and-then-the-games)  
>  I'm messing around with the idea of a sequel atm.


End file.
